PROSPECT, Ky. (August 2004) – Randy Winstead takes his barbecue seriously. When it comes to entering a competition, he said, “People are there to win.”

Photo provided Oldham rib cookers at last year's event.

Winstead will go head to head with some of the best grillers in the country Aug. 27-28 during the second annual South Oldham Lion’s Club BBQ Cookoff & Bluegrass Festival. The event location has been changed from last year’s Oldham County Fairgrounds to the Belknap Community Center on Hwy. 42 in Prospect because the center has more room, said Oldham County Tourism Director Diana Polsgrove.
The center is owned by the North Oldham Lion’s Club and is a good facility, said event chairman and South Oldham Lion’s Club member Tom Temple. Water and electricity are readily available for contestants at the center.
Polsgrove said this national competition is an excellent way to educate folks about this type of event. She hopes to develop this signature event into a family event. In addition to the barbecue competitions, there will be bluegrass bands, arts and crafts, vendors and children’s activities.
Winstead’s team, Big R’s Blazin’ Butts, consists of daughters Whitney and Ashley, and wife, Nancy. Like other competitors, Winstead concocts his own rubs and sauces. He will be entered in four different meat categories and use a different rub for each one. He practices at home on the weekends and said the key to taste is to “keep experimenting.”
“This will be one of the biggest events in our area,” said Winstead, who beat out stiff competition last year to win three ribbons. His participation this year is based on the fact that the event was so well organized last year.
Winstead hopes to compete professionally someday when he retires. He said he enjoys the company and the fact that this event is a true competition, not just backyard barbecue grilling for the family. There is what he calls a serious side to such an event.
Temple said more events like this one are “popping up as fund raisers in other areas. America just loves barbecue.”
Temple came across the idea for a barbecue festival while surfing cable TV’s Discovery Channel. “I picked up on a contest and noticed it attracted quite a crowd. I thought, ‘What a tremendous fund raiser for the Lion’s Club,’ ” he said.
The Lion’s Club is a big contributor to eyesight preservation. They assist indigent people in the community who are unable to purchase eyeglasses and provide sight screening for school children. Last year’s festival proceeds went to an Oldham County High School student who was injured in his chemistry class.